Humboldt Park residents fight for their neighborhood

As he marched to the first Humboldt Park
Housing Summit Saturday morning, 30-year resident Jimmy Torres
explained that rising housing costs are forcing him to move out of
his community.

"I was looking to buy a house here, but prices
have gone crazy," said Torres, a renter. "A lot of residents here are poor
and cannot afford it anymore. I am thinking of moving
south."

Torres joined about 300 other Humboldt Park
residents in the march to the Humboldt Park Field House. With many waving Puerto Rican flags, a multiethnic crowd of protesters
condemned rising rents and property taxes.

"Humboldt Park no se vende!" chanted the crowd
among salsa drumbeats and shaking maracas. "Humboldt Park is not
for sale!"

The housing summit was held to educate
residents on growing gentrification in Humboldt Park and to provide distressed residents with housing resources, said Michael Rodriguez
MuÃ±iz, a member of the Puerto Rican Cultural
Center's Participatory Democracy Project. The Project joined the Humboldt Park Empowerment
Partnership's Housing Action Team and the Near Northwest
Neighborhood Network to host the event.

"There is a large sentiment that people are
being squeezed out of their homes," said Rodriguez MuÃ±iz. "There are social costs to gentrification; displaced people
lose their social ties, the support of their neighbors, and their
cultural identities."

The influx of developers
looking to buy cheap real estate to resell at high prices and the
building of high-priced condominiums have been the main concerns,
Rodriguez MuÃ±iz said. But residents have
also faced rental discrimination and harassment from city
inspectors, he said.

"Residents get slapped with repeated building
violations and aren't given the legally allowed time to address
these complaints," said Matthew Rodriguez, also a member of the
Democracy Project.

The summit featured several "breakout"
sessions for residents to learn more about dealing with housing
issues, including discriminatory advertising, predatory lenders, and the role of youth in resisting housing
displacement.